


I Might Think Twice

by holtzdamn



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Asexual, F/F, HSAU, High School, High School AU, Trans, Transgender, ace - Freeform, ace!abby, bi!erin, gay!holtzmann, ghostbusters - Freeform, holtzmann - Freeform, trans!patty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:27:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7714849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holtzdamn/pseuds/holtzdamn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HSAU with your favourite girls and guy, being queer, fighting ghosts and generally kicking ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All Riled Up

Erin Gilbert hated summer.

“Hey, Erin,”

Really hated it. She hated the stifling heat that made her clothes cling and stick to her skin. She hated how she could feel all of her sweat pooling in various places throughout the day.

“Erin?”

She hated how her legs always peeled off of seats when she wore skirts. How she felt as if if she looked back down at her seat she might see her skin still stuck to the chair. Most of all she hated seeing all the guys walk around shirtless, yet she was still confined to her bra and t-shirt because of the two balls of fat on her chest.

“Erin!” Abby snapped. Erin turned to face her friend, who had diverted her attention from the road to snap Erin out of her thoughts.

“Eyes on the road!” Erin called, reaching over and grabbing the steering wheel to swerve Abby’s car back into the right lane. In the process she had risen from her seat, feeling the ever too familiar rush of pain as her legs were skinned by the heat- yet again. “Fuck!” Erin said through gritted teeth as she settled back into the passenger seat.

“Sorry, sorry,” Abby apologised, once again focused on not getting the both of them killed on the way to school. “I was gonna ask you to put on some tunes. Since y’know you’re so clearly focused on not talking on the way to school today,”

Erin didn’t reply, instead opening the glove box to pick a CD.Erin looked down, surprised to see the new array of CDs now in Abby’s glove box.

“The Clash, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys,” Erin said as she scrunched up her nose at the artists.

“There should be four CDs,” Abby said. At this Erin reached into the back of the compartment and sure enough, pulled out another CD.

“Now That's What I Call Music 1986…”

“Millennium Series,” Abby added on cheerfully.

“What happened to your other CDs?”Erin asked. Her friend merely shrugged.

“Eh, I got bored. Plus y’know that science thing I went to over the summer? One of the girls I met there gave me some of her old CDs to listen to,” Abby said, once again turning to face Erin as she stopped at a red light.

“Yeah. Really old. Hey! Eyes on the road!” Erin demanded, regardless of the fact that the car was currently stationary.

“Relax, okay. Maybe we shouldn’t put on music since you’d probably just get even more riled up than you already are,”

“I am not _riled_ _up_ ,” Erin insisted, forcing the CDs back into the glove compartment with a little too much force.

From behind them cars started beeping their horns incessantly at Abby’s small honda civic.

“Shit,” Abby cursed, only now noticing the green light above them as she continued driving to school.

Within the next few minutes the two friends arrived at Westbank High School, reluctantly abandoning the in-car AC and stepping out into the mid-August heat. _Why did our school have to start in the middle of august?_ Erin thought. _We’re in New York, where every other school in the state doesn’t start until September. After summer._

After Abby had locked her small, silver Honda Civic, the two of them made their way into school. As soon as they walked in a cool breeze blew over them causing both girls to give a sigh of relief. Granted by the end of first period they’d no longer be able to feel the two degrees of difference, but it would be nice whilst it lasted.

“What’ve you got first?” Abby asked as the two of them walked into their home room and sat in their usual seats at the back of the classroom- mainly to avoid being seen not joining in with the pledge.

Erin took her new timetable out of her bag, already laminated, and look at her lessons for today.

“Uh..English with...Miss Whitaker,” Erin smiled up at her friend to see a look of jealousy on Abby’s face.

“Again?” Abby cried. “What the fuck, Erin that’s like the second year in a row,” At this Erin laughed. When it came to English there was only one teacher everyone wanted- Miss Whitaker. She may be cliche at time but she was the best English teacher- in fact just teacher- at Westbank, not to mention youngest teacher at Westbank.

“Actually I had her in ninth grade too so that’s the third year in a row. Who have you got for English this year?” Erin peaked a look at Abby’s own timetable, already stained with a coffee ring, and winced. “Ooohh, unlucky, Abby,”

“What?” Abby looked alarmed, scanning her timetable for the name of her English teacher. “Please not Keane again, please not Keane again- fuck!”She exclaimed, folding her timetable back into her pocket. Yet again Abby had Mr Keane- the polar opposite of Miss Whitaker in every way, except in how “friendly” he was to students but most likely for different reasons to Miss Whitaker. “That’s it, goodbye Erin. We had a great friendship. I’m gonna go hang myself from the nearest rafter. Make sure they play Blaze of Glory at my funeral,” As Abby said this the school bell rang out, signalling the official start of school. Students began standing up in groups and making their way to classes as Abby and Erin did the same.

“Good luck,” Erin called as Abby forked off further down the hall to her own classroom. In the midst of all the students migning through the corridor Erin saw a hand reach up and flip her off.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Welcome back students!” Miss Whitaker beamed as Erin and her classmates walked through the room and took a desk. Most students would have been shuffling into the front of the class, milling around until they found a desk with their name on it. Most likely what Abby was doing right about now. But as she always stated Miss Whitaker didn’t ‘believe’ in seating plans. Unless of course you kept being a dick, then seating plans for that person were compulsory.

Erin took a seat in the middle row (to minimise attention to her) and on the left (the side closest to the door). She took out her pencil case and a notepad as Whitaker continued talking.

“As you can see class we have a new student with us today," Miss Whitaker announced, gesturing towards the back of the class.   
Erin had heard rumours about a new transfer; a crazy transfer that had been involved in an accident due to an invention gone wrong; really wrong. Although she usually  tended to take the school rumours with a grain of salt, after turning her head to get a look at the newbie, with wild blonde hair, rocking back in her chair and combat boots resting on her desk, Erin admitted they seemed more believable.   
The transfer was a girl with short curly blonde hair and pale white skin. She wore glasses with yellow lenses, not allowing Erin to make out the colour of her eyes. The girl was wearing what looked like an old graphic tee under a pair of paint spattered overalls that were rolled halfway up her calves. On top of the overalls she wore a black leather jacket with matching fingerless gloves on her hands that were fiddling with the silver necklace around her neck. Erin squinted, trying to make out what the necklace was. It look like the letter ‘U’ with a screw drilled through it.

 _Clever._ Erin thought sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. This girl already looked like she personified trouble. Granted she was attractive, but in terms of pros and cons, trouble outweighed hot. Not to mention she would be uninterested in Erin like everybody else.

"Would you like to come up to the front and introduce yourself?"   
Erin rolled her eyes at the stock teacher reaction to having a new student in their class as the transfer stood up from her desk and slowly walked to the front of the class, smiling.   
"I'm Holtzmann," She said.   
"What kinda name is Holtzmann?" Sneered a boy from the back of the class, eliciting a few sniggers from the class.

“If you're gonna be a smartass, first you have to be smart. Otherwise you're just an ass.” Holtzmann replied without missing a beat. This elicited even more sniggers and a few laughs, leaving Nick to fold his arms and slouch back in his chair.  
"Don't interrupt, Nick. Please go on," Miss Whitaker may use stock teacher talk sometimes, but overall she was one of the more understanding teachers at Westbank High. She no should have told Holtzmann off for insulting Nick, but she was new, and always gave newbies a bit more slack.

"I recently transferred upstate because my last school was...poorly equipped,” Holtzmann smirked. Erin could have sworn she saw her glance at the fire extinguisher by the door when she said this.

“Thank you, Holtzmann,” Miss Whitaker smiled. Holtzmann nodded and started walking back to her desk.

Erin and the rest of the class then turned back towards Miss Whitaker, most of them losing interest in the newbie.

“Hey, you dropped this,” Erin looked down to see Holtzmann crouched next to her desk, picking up a piece of paper.

“No I…,” Erin began but Holtzmann had already put the crumpled piece of paper on her desk and carried on walking before Erin could get any further.

Out of sheer curiosity, she ignored Miss Whitaker’s ramblings about iambic pentameter and uncrumpled the paper on her desk.

It was a phone number.

Erin suddenly felt her face turning bright red and clenched her fists together as she sharply turned her head to see Holtzmann looking at her expectantly before winking and smirking.

Of course she’d already found out about the incident at Ellie’s party last summer. Rumours travelled fast, even between schools, and if everyone already thought Holtzmann  was crazy, then Holtzmann no doubt thought Erin was a massive fucking lesbian.

Granted it was half true; she was bi. But half truths were what most school rumours thrived upon, along with lack of research.

“Eurgh,” Erin heard Nick grimace from the other end of the classroom. “Holtzmann’s been here ten minutes and Gilbert’s already trying to fuck her,” He shouted. Erin felt a lump in her chest as the whole class erupted into laughter.

Everyone except Holtzmann; she was sat with her feet up on the desk, looking at Erin with an eyebrow raised as if wanting an explanation.

“Right that’s it, Nick,” Miss Whitaker called over the laughter. “Principal’s office. I won’t have you harassing your classmates,”


	2. Celebration

For the rest of the class Erin sat in her desk, furiously concentrated on scribbling down notes of everything Miss Whitaker said. She even noted down how her kittens were getting on in their new home, without realising she was doing so until she’d wasted a page on the anecdote. With gritted teeth she ripped out the page of writing she’d done on her English teacher’s kittens; drawing a look of concern from her teacher.

The end of the lesson couldn’t come fast enough; Erin couldn’t wait to take Holtzmann down a peg after her stunt with giving Erin the number. Erin had no doubt she would soon be subject to the resurfacing of the rumours about how gay Erin Gilbert is. Or Gaybert as she was so fondly dubbed after the party.

As soon as the bell started to ring, Erin hastily began packing up her stuff like the rest of her classmates. If it had been any other teacher, they’d have made the class wait until they dismissed them; a petty attempt to remind the students who’s in charge. But Whitaker was content with the amount of content they’d covered during their first day back and allowed the students to leave. All but one student.

“Erin?” Miss Whitaker called, just as she had stepped a foot outside of the classroom. Erin winced as she heard her name before turning round with a fake smile plastered onto her face.

“Yes, ma'am?” She replied whilst making her way over to her teacher’s desk.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Miss Whitaker said sincerely.

“With all due respect ma’am I’ve been dealing with this for about a year now,” Erin scoffed. “You learn to deal with it,” She lied.

“Yes well I just wanted to let you know that I’m on your side. I’d also like to apologise for the principal's lack of concern regarding bullying here. Especially homophobia,” Erin glanced behind her and saw Holtzmann disappearing out of the classroom, using the opportunity to roll her eyes at her teacher’s attempt at consoling her.

“Thank you, ma’am, but I have a class I really need to get to so can I please leave?” Erin asked with fake urgency.

“Of course, of course, Erin,” Without another word she rushed out of the classroom, trying to catch sight of Holtzmann. But with no luck.

Erin growled in frustration, still clutching the screwed up scrap of paper in her hand.

She looked down at it, wondering if this actually was Holtzmann’s number. She’d have to wait until she next saw her to find out.

Erin took her laminated timetable out of her bag and groaned when she realised what she had next.

“Great. History,” She laughed mockingly, dragging herself to her next lesson.

“You okay there?” Erin jumped as she heard a voice behind her, interrupting her reverie of daydreams about giving Holtzmann the what for.

She turned to see a girl behind her that she recognised as another one of Nick’s victims. She was African-American with dark brown eyes and almost black hair that was styled into an intricate updo. She wore a flowery blouse and navy jeans with rips across the thighs and knees and a golden necklace that spelled out “Patty”. Patty (Erin assumed) had a concerned look in her eyes- Erin was already tired of getting that look from people today and it was only second period.

“Uh, yeah,” Erin replied, bringing a hand to her forehead and dragging it through her hair. “I just really hate my next lesson,” She laughed.

“Erin Gilbert, right?” Patty stretched out her hand. “I’m Patty Tolan,” She said as Erin shook her hand.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Patty, but I have a lesson I really need to get to,”

“I know,” Patty smiled. “I heard you say you had history. Me too, wanna walk together?” Erin hesitated; the target on her back was already big enough without befriending another “freak” as people like Patty and herself were dubbed. Queer people.

“Sure,” Erin smiled, realising how cowardly and stupid it would be not to be friends with someone because she had something in common with them. From what Erin had gathered Patty was trans and had come out last year to the entire school- willingly. Erin remembered both admiring her bravery and criticising her stupidity, mainly the former. Ever since she’d been somewhat of a social outcast but nevertheless she could handle herself.

“How do you know my name?” Erin asked.

“Uh…,” Patty hesitated, unsure whether or not she should bring up the subject.

“Nick?” Erin guessed. Patty nodded.

“Yeah, sorry about that, dude. He’s an ass,”  Erin nodded in agreement as the two girls came to their history room for the year and ducked in, trying to avoid the attention of Mr Briggs- and failing.

“Why are you late?” He called without turning away from the white board.

“Miss Whitaker wanted to speak to me after class, sir,” Erin replied, taking her the desk with her name stuck on the front. Back row, on the right. Great.

“I got lost,” Patty said as she sat down in her assigned desk next to Erin. “Erin showed me where the classroom was, sir,”

“Very well, girls,” Erin didn’t know much about Briggs; she’d never had him before but she hadn’t heard any students talking about hating him. Apart from the usual people who just hated anyone and anything associated with learning. Add that to the fact that Patty was positively glowing when Briggs didn’t misgender her and he seemed more than alright so far.

The class passed by relatively quickly considering how uninterested Erin was in the topic. Perhaps what made it seem more entertaining was Patty’s random and extensive knowledge of the entire state and it’s history. She knew the answer to nearly every one of Briggs’ questions and Erin could fast see Briggs becoming Patty’s favourite teacher- most likely due to the subject he taught and the fact he actually called her Patty, no doubt.

“You were on a roll in there,” Erin laughed as the two new friends walked out of history together. “I think you actually made history interesting to me,”

“You don’t find it interesting?” Patty asked in a wounded voice. “I thought you were cool, Gilbert. Seems I was wrong,” She added in a mock-disappointed voice. “Anyway, what you got next?” She asked whilst the two of them walked down the corridor to the next lesson.

Erin pulled out her laminated timetable to find she had an elective next. “First aid,” She announced indifferently. Erin had only put that down as a choice because she had recently seen Battle Royale at the time, which had led her to obsess over what would happen if she were ever in that situation. She had somehow come to the conclusion that the best course of action was to waste one of her elective slots on a first aid course at the time.

She mentally cursed her past self for being so obsessive and anxious- then again that was also her current self as well- to the point where she had actually thought this class would be a good use of time. Then again first aid always looked good on a resume so maybe it wasn’t a total waste.

“After that I have Spanish you?”

“Biology, then math,” Patty replied without looking at her timetable. “You wanna hang out during lunch?” She offered hopefully.

“Sure,” Erin smiled. “My friend Abby will be there too, we can all eat together,” At this Patty returned her new found friend’s smile and Erin waved goodbye as she climbed the stairs to next period.

  


\---------------------------------------------------------------

“ _Adios, la clase_ ,” Señora Serrano dismissed the class as the bell rang.

“ _Adios señora_ ,” Erin and her classmates replied collectively as they packed away their stuff.

“ _Yo quiero tu tarea en en el próximo lunes ¿bueno?”_ She added as the class walked out.

“ _S_ _í señora,”_ The class drawled in response as the trickled out of the room, finally free to enjoy their lunch period.

 “Erin!” Someone called as she stepped out of the Spanish classroom. She turned to see Abby waiting for outside class and smiling. As Erin walked over to her she noticed that Abby had someone stood with her, it wasn’t Patty; Patty wasn’t blonde and she didn't have yellow lense glasses.

“Hola, Erin,” Holtzmann greeted her when she reached them.

“You!” Erin seethed, fumbling for the scrap of paper in her bag. “You n-”

“Remember the girl I was talking about in the car?” Abby beamed, oblivious to her best friend’s rage. “This is her! Erin, meet Holtzmann,”

“Oh we’ve already met,” Erin stated plainly, holding out the paper in a scrunched hand to Holtz. “Because of _your_ little joke, the whole school is going to start calling me Gaybert again and think I’m a massive fucking lesbian,” She said, a little to loud as passers by sniggered.

“Are you?” Was all Holtzmann said with a wink. Erin didn’t reply, instead she stood there with gritted teeth, waiting for someone to break the silence.

“ _Riiiiight,”_ Abby said, looking between her friends. “Well I have no idea what the hell is going on here so I’m gonna ignore it until I have some fries in front of me,” Abby began to walk down the hallway, Holtz and Erin followed. One had a glare plastered to her face, the other, a smirk.

“Oh and here,” Erin pushed the paper into Holtzmann’s chest with as much force as she could, but holtzmann seemed unaffected by her efforts. Holtzmann took the paper and realised it was the number she had covertly given Erin in first period.

“This is yours,” She stated, trying to give it back.

“No it’s not. It’s _your_ number or at least some random number and I have no interest in texting or calling whoever it belongs to,” Erin replied bluntly.

“Okay…” Holtzmann paused. She’d had no trouble giving girls her number before, and judging by the fact that Erin didn’t deny there was some truth to the “Gaybert” rumours, she figured that she wasn’t straight. So what was the problem? Did she still think the number was a joke? Holtzmann thought. “Well it wasn’t a joke and it looks like we’re gonna be friends either way,” She gestured in the direction towards Abby, who was now standing in the cafeteria line. “So you might as well take my number and put it into your phone, buddy,”

Erin sat down at lunch table with a huff, looking up at Holtzmann who was still stood. “I'm am not your _buddy._ But fine,” She conceded, snatching the number out of Holtzmann’s hand and pulling out her phone. “Happy now?” She asked, showing Holtz the screen that now displayed her number under her surname.

“Well I don’t have your number in my phone yet,  so I could be better,” Holtzmann smirked as someone called out Erin’s name.

“Gilbert,” Patty smiled as she got to the table. “Sorry, math was brutal,” She said as she sat down. “Who’s this?” Patty asked, nodding towards Holtzmann.

“Holtzmann,” She stated, stretching out a hand.

“I’m Patty,” Patty replied as Holtz shook her hand violently. “Where’s Abby?”

“In the lunch line,” Erin stated, looking over to see that Abby was now making her way back over with food. She sat down at the table, placing the tray full of food in the middle and picking at the fries. Erin took a can of Dr. Pepper and one of the sandwiches and began unwrapping it before picking it up to take a bite.

“Thanks, Abbs. I’ll give you some money after school; can we stop off at an ATM?”  Erin asked.

“Don’t worry about it we’re celebrating!” Abby laughed, wrapping an arm around Holtzmann who now had a mouth full of fries. “I got my science camp bud here at school!” The two of them laughed and began babbling about their experience at summer camp and giggling like they were 8 again.

“This is Patty by the way, Abby,” Erin interrupted.

“Oh hey! Nice to meet you Patty, please help yourself to any of the food, there’s a drink and  sandwich for you two but I didn’t know what you liked so I just guessed,”

At this Patty smiled, grabbing a random sandwich and can of Coke.

“Sorry about them, Abby isn’t usually like this but she found out today one of her friend’s from science camp transferred her,” Erin explained between eating her lunch.

“It’s cool, dude, I get it. I’d be the same if I just found out my bestfriend transferred,” Patty smiled before digging into her sandwich.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long delay friends but I finally finished chapter 2! Granted not much happens but we do meet Patty! I hope to get the next chapter out ASAP but I can't promise anythign just in case. Tell me what you think either on here or on my tumblr: http://www.holtzdamn.tumblr.com


End file.
